Dillo Hills 2 (racing)

Fullscreen does not work on Kongregate.

Dillo Hills 2 by fexLabs (click the 'i' button on the main screen for a full list of the people responsible) is a 2D racing game featuring colorful animal characters and cute sound effects. The game is easy to play but difficult to master. A player's skill has a large impact on his/her performance.

Easier to catch a screenshot on the ramp at the end of the lap.

The basic gameplay is simple: press down to land at the descending portion of a slope. Stop pressing at the middle and launch off. Press up to glide to delay landing if there is no suitable place to land.

The in-game tutorial explains this much more clearly than mere words.

Update 5 February 2014:
This forum post suggests that the best time to release the down key is just before launching off the ground. I'm not sure if the information is still correct, considering the date of the post.

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Player placings after a race.

Despite the simple gameplay, it is difficult to master the game. The art of landing on downward slopes while moving at high speed requires considerable skill. In addition, the player has to learn some combat skills to effectively use and avoid power-ups.

I bombed someone.

There are crystals to be found during the race, usually on the ground. Picking them up increases the player's speed. In addition, after a certain amount is collected, the player is awarded a power-up. These power-ups may be for offense where it's used to stun/hinder opponents, for defense to protect/recover from attacks, and/or supportive where it helps the player skip forward a little.

Mastering the use of these power-ups take some practice and adds another element to the game for players to learn.

There are also different worlds to race on, each with a different flow of terrain. Practice on these worlds will give the player an advantage over his/her opponents.

There are also different game modes. Worlds on Zen only give the Cloud Canister power-up. This removes a lot of randomness. The player with the most skill and who is most familiar with the terrain will have the advantage.

Besides Zen, there are also worlds with Water and Mining. Water has part of the world covered with, well, water, allowing racers to dive and emerge for extra speed. Racers should watch for obstacles floating on a couple of Water worlds. Mining is the recently introduced game mode where, instead of a straightforward race, the player races to gather a certain amount of crystals of three different colors.

A racer's stats.

Outside of races, the player has his/her racer(s) to manage. Each racer has stats that can be improved with XP cards. XP cards are commonly found from booster packs. Booster packs may be obtained from participation in races or by buying them from the Race Shop. Booster packs are opened with the link shown at the top right of the screenshot above, highlighted with bright white light.

Once all the racer's stats are maxed, the racer may be promoted (note the promote button on the left of the screenshot above). Promoting a racer resets that racer to its starting stats but awards the player with a Prestige token and a special booster pack. The Prestige token may be used in the Race Shop to buy rare accessories.

Accessories mainly make a racer look pretty but they also increase one of the racer's stats. A rare accessory may add to two of the racer's stats.

It is easy to max out a racer within a day (or a few) of playing. In addition, latter stats (the more expensive ones) add less to the individual racer's performance compared to the first. Because of these factors, the player's skill has a great impact on the outcome of a race. Thus, practice is important to be good in Dillo Hills 2.

Part of the selection in the Race Shop.

In addition to the main game of racing, there is a sort of minigame within Dillo Hills 2 involving the League. The League is a fantasy racer management game where the player may add real players to his/her League. The better those other players do in races, the more League tokens the player gets. These League tokens may be used in the Race Shop to buy goodies like booster packs and unlocking specific racers.

The League minigame.

Graphic-wise, the game is pretty. The racers are colorful and can be funny or cheerful or whatever depending on the equipped accessory. The racers also make cute sounds. In a large game (Tournaments or Disco) with lots of racers, there may be lots of tiny animal voices as racers overtake and/or attack one another, especially at the start.

The game is updated once in a while with new racers (the Mining worlds were added recently). In addition, bugs and exploits will be fixed. There is regular support from the game developer (at the time of writing).

In summary, Dillo Hills 2 is a game of skill. It has lovely graphics and happy sound effects but its main draw is the difficult skill level at the top that tempts players to master it. Also, there are accessories and achievements to collect.

For tips on Dillo Hill 2, check out Icrine's guide.

Party time in Dillo Hills 2.